He's a 5.0 !!!!!

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In pickleball when someone new wants to join a group the questions that comes up is "what's your ranking?"

Pickleball does have an official way to measure a players ranking, but generally most people do a 'self ranking'.

Every now and then someone approaches a group (perhaps they are travelling through) asking to join a session only to reveal they are a 5.0 ranking. (that means they are good!)

So a buzz will circulate across the group with whatsapps flying before the session... 'new player joining us tonight, he's a 5.0'..... will be met with 

 ........wow I better come play him

.......Hope I can get some good tips

...... How long has he be playing

......where is he from ...the US??


The problem comes with the self rating element, because one person's 5.0 is not the same as another person's.

So there are a selection of 5.0 "types" that turn up to play - here are a few examples.

The Talker 
This is the player that can talk a 5.0 game, points out all your mistakes when they partner you, has lots of advice on what you are doing wrong, but seems unaware that they can hardly hit the ball themselves !


The Prospector
This is the player that causes a big stir by announcing they are 5.0, then on every game they play, they tell their partner, come drill with me I can get you to from 3.5 to 4.0.................I only charge 100 for an hour.


The Rusty
The player turns up, does some good stretches, get's out the $350 paddle, then proceeds to miss every dink and hit their drops into their net, only to inform .....Oh its been 9 months since I last picked up a paddle


The Dominator

Enters the court with 3 other 2.5/3.0 players, no-one else on either side seems to touch the ball at all, games over in 5 minutes with the other three players looking shell shocked and battle scarred with red round blotches where they were shown no mercy at the 5.0 smashes.


The Maths Failure

After things look bad a couple of minutes into the game , you question there playing skill to be told "Oh no no.....not 5.0 I meant 2.0...sorry"


So with all the confusion around self rating  wouldn't it be a good idea to come up with a failsafe rating method?

Well there is one, its called DUPR....it calculates your rating based on actual results. 

problem solved right? Wrong?  When you ask people what's your DUPR you can be met with.....

"I don't like DUPR, its not a real standard yet"

"My DUPR is 4.6, but do you mind if I only log games that I win?"

"I don't like to use DUPR that way I can enter 3.0 level competitions and build up my medal collection"

Whatever your rating, my advise, find a stronger player as your doubles partner!!!













 

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